Scientists may have found the universe’s first stars

.

Astronomers may be closer than ever to solving one of cosmology’s biggest mysteries: what the universe’s very first stars looked like. A new study using the James Webb Space Telescope has identified a distant star system named LAP1-B that shows all the signatures scientists expect from the long-theorised Population III stars, the first stellar generation formed after the Big Bang.

A rare window into the infant universe LAP1-B lies around 13 billion light-years away, meaning the light reaching Earth today was emitted when the universe was just 800 million years old. This period matches the timeline when the earliest stars are believed to have formed from pristine hydrogen and helium, before heavier elements existed. The system sits inside a small dark matter halo, a key structural feature predicted by models of early star formation.

The clues that make LAP1-B special Researchers say the star system stands out for three reasons: its location in a tiny halo, its immense mass and its appearance as part of a compact cluster rather than an isolated structure. Earlier candidates showed only one or two of these features, making LAP1-B the most complete match yet. Webb’s exceptional sensitivity, boosted by gravitational lensing from the galaxy cluster MACS J0416, allowed astronomers to magnify and analyse the faint light from this ancient system.

What the spectrum revealed Spectral analysis detected almost no heavy elements—known as metals in astronomy. This absence is exactly what scientists expect from Population III stars, which formed before any element production through nuclear fusion or supernova explosions began. Their existence has long been theorised but never directly confirmed.

The beginning of a new search Researchers caution that more data is needed to conclusively prove LAP1-B contains true first-generation stars. But they say this system is the strongest candidate so far and could mark the start of a wave of similar discoveries that will help map the earliest chapters of cosmic history.